Turn back the clock: former pitcher Elden Auker fondly recalls his days in the majors

Baseball Digest, May, 2003 by Alan Tays

FROM THE OUTSIDE, THERE'S LITTLE to distinguish one unpretentious home from another on this quiet street in this well-kept neighborhood bordered by canals on the east side of Palm Beach, Florida.

But when Elden Auker greets you at the front door of the house he and his wife, Mildred, have lived in since 1974 and shows you into his study, a whole world of baseball history opens up before your eyes.

There's Babe Ruth, in familiar follow-through pose. Auker struck him out the first time they faced each other. There's Joe DiMaggio. Auker surrendered a few hits to the Yankee Clipper during his 56-game hitting streak. There are Mickey Cochrane and Charlie Geh-ringer, Auker's teammates with the 1935 World Series champion Detroit Tigers. And there's Ted Williams, Auker's onetime teammate with the Boston Red Sox.

Auker, 91, won 130 games in 10 major league seasons as a submarine-style right-handed pitcher. He pitched six seasons (1933-1938) for the Detroit Tigers, one (1939) for the Red Sox and three (1940-1942) for the St. Louis Browns, the predecessors of the Baltimore Orioles.

In 2001, Auker collaborated with Tom Keegan, baseball columnist for The New York Post, on Auker's memoirs, "Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms." Auker credits former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda for jump-starting the project, introducing him to Keegan.

The three were having lunch one day at the Dodgers' training complex just a few miles from Auker's home. "Tommy said, `This guy's going to be dead one of these days and we'll miss all these stories that he has to tell,"' Auker said with a laugh. "He said, `Why don't you get together and write it?'"

The result was dozens of tales about some of baseball's most colorful characters. Though Auker's book isn't racy in the manner of Jim Bouton's tell-all book, "Ball Four," it isn't entirely G-rated, either.

Take Ruth, for instance. The Babe "liked to belch and pass gas and laugh about it," Auker wrote. The first time Auker pitched to Ruth was in relief at Yankee Stadium in 1933. Auker was a Tigers rookie and Ruth was two years from retiring. Auker struck him out on four pitches.

"I tried to keep the ball in on his fists so he couldn't get the good part of the bat on it," Auker said. "I could try to change up on him, too, because he swung hard. You could strike him out, but make a mistake and he'd hit it out of the ballpark."

When he was with the Tigers, Auker lived during the off-season in Lake-land., Florida. A single-digit handicap golfer, he played a lot of golf in the area with other players, including Ruth.

"He didn't hit the ball too far off the tee," Auker said, "but he was very accurate. He was a lot of fun to play with--just a regular guy."

Auker remembers Ruth's teammate, Lou Gehrig, as Ruth's polar opposite. Writing about Ruth's wife, Claire, traveling with Ruth in his later years with the Yankees to keep him in line, Auker wrote, "But nobody ever had to keep Gehrig in line. He was born in line and never stepped out of it."

Auker had great respect for Ruth and Gehrig and was saddened by their deaths--Gehrig's in 1941 and Ruth's in 1948. He has no similar sentimental, memory of another famous player, Leo Durocher.

In his book, Auker recounts a story about Durocher he said he heard when he was playing for the Tigers.

Because of Ruth's penchant for belching and passing gas, Auker wrote, no regulars wanted to room with him on the road. So the team always had a young player room with him.

Durocher was Ruth's roommate. He seemed to be dealing well with Ruth's personal habits, but Ruth and some teammates started to notice that money and valuables were missing.

Suspicious, Ruth marked five $100 bills. He later found them, plus his pocket watch, in Durocher's bag. He woke Durocher and began beating him until hotel security arrived.

Nothing ever appeared in the newspapers. "In those days, when something like that happened, everyone did their best to keep it out of the newspapers," Auker said. "It wasn't like it is today. They protected the guys then. That's why it never got out The ballplayers knew about it and the main sportswriters knew about it, but they didn't write about it."

The Yankees released Durocher. According to Auker, Durocher was blackballed from the American League.

"It's a fact, I can tell you that," Auker said. "There's no baloney about it. It happened."

Auker also wrote about another controversial player, Ted Williams, who feuded for much of his career with fans and some Boston baseball writers. Auker says he knows why; he was there when the bad blood started, and he says it wasn't Williams' fault

According to Auker, he and his wife were in a group of several Red Sox players and their wives who had gone to dinner and were back at the hotel making plans for the rest of the evening. Boston Globe sportswriter Bill Cunningham approached Williams, who was then a rookie.

Auker wrote that the conversation went this way:

Cunningham: "Well, come on, Ted, let's go upstairs and get it over with. All the baseball fans in Boston are waiting with bated breath to hear the story about the kid from Minneapolis. Might just as well do it now as any time."